It is a known feature of conventional mobile communication networks to transmit measurement jobs from base station entities towards connected user equipments in order to perform measurement, especially of the current radio environment of the user equipment.
For the case of an LTE mobile communication network (Long Term Evolution), the 3GPP standardization documents describe the measurement configuration in 3GPP TS 36.331. The main target of the described measurement is to provide inputs for RRM (Radio Resource Management) and mobility purposes. Beside that, the measurements can also be used to deliver inputs for network optimization functions, like generation of a downlink interference matrix based on mobile measurements or the estimation of the geo-location, i.e. the position, of the UE.
Generally, such measurement requirements communicated to user equipments connected to or camping on a radio cell (i.e. a base station entity) necessarily have drawbacks, at least regarding the transmission capacity of the mobile communication network (especially the base station entity) and/or the user equipment. The measurement requirements normally involve additional network communication load (especially on the air interface between the respective user equipment and the concerned base station entity), as well as normally drain the power supply of the user equipments itself, i.e. reduces the residual battery life time (at least in case that the user equipment is not connected to an electrical grid).